Saturday, May 4, 2013

Twenty years sounds like a bit much, but he was ultimately responsible for what went on there. To me, this is a travesty of justice. It sounds more like what a Louisiana jury would do than one in The Bay State.

Yet, he does seem to have the right attitude about it.

The 53-year-old Fleury cried and hugged his attorney and his family after the verdicts were read, while several of Christopher’s relatives walked quickly out of the courtroom without
commenting.He has vowed never to hold a machine gun shoot ever again,
and regrets having held them in the past, due to the death of the
child.

A University of Southern Mississippi student from Brandon remains
in critical yet stable condition Friday after accidentally shooting
himself in the thigh while sitting in his vehicle on campus.Blake Ballard, 22, was found on the pavement outside his jeep
Thursday afternoon on the service road adjacent to the Ogletree Alumni
House.

The junior was rushed to Forrest General Hospital for treatment.

Because of his condition, police have not been able to interview the
victim to determine the circumstances surrounding the shooting. But from
all indications, police say it appears to have been accidental.

University officials say Ballard apparently was not in violation of
state law by having a gun in the vehicle on campus because he was over
21 and had obtained an enhancement to a concealed firearms permit, but
he may face university discipline for having a gun on campus at a later
date.

One Britton-Hecla student faces charges and another is recovering at a
Fargo, N.D., hospital after an accidental shooting on school property
Wednesday.

Dusty Groom, 18, of rural Lake City, faces misdemeanor charges of reckless discharge of a firearm, possession of a firearm on school property and false reporting to authorities, according to a news release from Elsen.

Groom was showing other boys what he thought was an unloaded .22
caliber handgun when it went off and hit another teenager in the head
about 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to the release. The sheriff's office
received a call from the Britton hospital emergency room about the
shooting about 4:25 p.m., according to the release.

Young Mr. Groom surely came from one of those gun-nut families. Where else would he learn his responsible gun handling from.

Incidentally, this is a typical 18-year-old, not those squared-away military types who are truly qualified to own and use firearms at their young age. Most are not.

A four-year-old child is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to
the head after an apparent accident Friday, according to Brighton police.Brighton
police were called to the 4100 block of 7th Avenue in Brighton around 4:30 p.m.
Friday. The four-year-old boy was found with a gunshot wound and was taken to
Children's of Alabama, a Brighton police lieutenant said.The boy and
a four-year-old girl were in a bedroom and one of them apparently got a hold of
the gun.Police were not sure which child had the gun, and the incident was
under investigation.

This is near the home of Porter, Porter & Hassinger, P.C. Maybe the NRA President can defend these poor folks from any unnecessary hassle resulting from this unfortunate accident.

“The NRA was started, 1871, right here in New York state. It was
started by some Yankee generals who didn’t like the way my southern boys
had the ability to shoot in what we call the ‘War of Northern
Aggression.’ Now y’all call it the Civil War, but we call it the War of
Northern Aggression down South.“But that was the very reason that they started the National Rifle
Association — it was to teach and train the civilian in the use of the
standard military firearm. And I am one who still feels very strongly
that that is one of our most greatest charges that we can have today, is
to train the civilian in the use of the standard military firearm, so
that when they have to fight for their country they’re read to do it.“Also, when they’re ready to fight tyranny, they’re ready to do it.
Also, when they’re ready to fight tyranny, they have the wherewithal and
the weapons to do it.”

It's laughable that the self-aggrandizing huckster thinks his "southern boys" were so much better marksmen than their northern counterparts that the NRA was formed as a result. According to the NRA themselves, the reason was slightly different.

Dismayed by the lack of marksmanship shown
by their troops, Union veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George
Wingate formed the National Rifle Association in 1871.

No mention of the superior Rebel marksmanship. I would imagine the disheartened troops on both side of the Civil War were equally poor marksmen.

Then, somehow, the concern for military troops' ability to shoot became a civilian endeavor. How did that happen? And as if that's not enough, it then became all about tyranny.

"Most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from
the United States," Obama told the crowd. "I think many of you know that
in America, our Constitution guarantees our individual right to bear
arms. And as president, I swore an oath to uphold that right, and I
always will. But at the same time, as I've said in the United States, I
will continue to do everything in my power to pass common-sense reforms
that keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people."That can save lives here in Mexico and back home in the United States," he said.

A western Pennsylvania man who allegedly shot a deer near a busy
Walmart parking lot on the first day of rifle season last year has been
ordered to stand trial on reckless endangerment and state game charges.

Arcangelo "Angelo" Bianco Jr., of Derry Township, spotted a deer in
the parking lot Nov. 26, fired several shots, then ran to the side of
the Burrell Township store where workers were loading tractor-trailers,
wildlife conservation officers contend.

Bianco allegedly continued
shooting at the fleeing deer, and he eventually retrieved it from a
woman's yard on the other side of a highway.

Among other things, authorities contend Bianco violated a state
"safety zone" law by firing a weapon within 150 yards of an occupied
structure. Bianco also didn't have a hunting license, authorities said.

At the hearing, employee Domenick Hewitt testified he was loading the
trailers when he saw Bianco's pickup stop abruptly in the lot then
speedily reverse toward the side of the store.

"After the truck stopped, I saw this guy jump out, and he started
running along the side of the store, where the trailers were, and he
pulled out a handgun and fired two shots at the deer," Hewitt said. "At
first I didn't know what he was doing."

"Just one of those crazy accidents," said the Cumberland County coroner, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.Clearly the issue of parental responsibility is at the center of this
tragedy. But against the backdrop of the Newtown massacre and ongoing
national debate over regulating firearms, it also points back to the big
business of guns—including how the industry profits from products aimed at children.The Pennsylvania-based maker of Crickett rifles, Keystone Sporting
Arms, markets its guns with the slogan "My First Rifle." They are
available with different barrel and stock designs, including some made
in hot pink to appeal to young girls.

The new president of the NRA is a good ol’ Southern boy, who sounds even crazier than the group’s gun-nut mouthpiece Wayne LaPierre.Alabama lawyer Jim Porter has called U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder “rabidly un-American” and proudly spews the Confederate line on the Civil War.In a June speech, Porter noted the NRA was “started by some Yankee
generals who didn’t like the way my Southern boys had the ability to
shoot in what we call the ‘War of Northern Aggression.’ ”“Now y’all might call it the Civil War, but we call it the ‘War of
Northern Aggression’ down South,” Porter said to the New York State
Rifle & Pistol Association.

Does anyone find it a bit hypocritical that so many of these men talk about needing guns for personal safety, yet by their eating habits and lifestyle they risk heart disease and diabetes? Isn't that a gross mix-up of priorities? Shouldn't they be more concerned with cutting back on those whopping portions at mealtimes than they are of multiple home invaders kicking in the door at night?

Another question is this: does being in such poor physical condition render one less capable in gun handling? If someone can't easily bend over and pick something up off the floor, or quickly turn around to see what's approaching from the rear, or even run a short distance, doesn't that impact on their ability to successfully deal with a dangerous situation?

One other observation about the portly Mr. Porter is this: isn't persisting in Confederacy-pride talk foolish at best and treasonous at worst?

A pair of black-and-white, pro-gun billboards in Greeley, Colo., are amping up the anger in a state that recently passed gun control legislation that has Democratic lawmakers who voted for it threatened with recall elections;and gun-related businesses threatening to move out in the legislation’s wake.The black-and-white signs feature three Native American men and read, “Turn in your arms. The government will take care of you.”The signs reportedly were paid for by gun advocates who wished to
remain anonymous, Lamar Advertising account executive Matt Wells told
the Greeley Tribune on Monday.“I think it’s a little bit extreme, of course, but I think people are
really worried about their gun rights and what liberties are going to
be taken away,” Wells told the Greeley Tribune.

Reuters/Reuters - A man rides down an escalator at the George R. Brown
Convention Center, ahead of the National Rifle Association's (NRA)
annual meeting in Houston, Texas May 2, 2013. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

Tens of thousands of National Rifle Association members gather in Houston this weekend for the first time since the U.S. Senate rejected a plan to expand background checks for gun buyers, but NRA officials said attendees would not sit back to celebrate victory.

"We view it as an opening battle in what will be a multi-year war," said Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA, which lobbied against the proposal. "We're definitely not resting on our laurels."

On Thursday, as thousands of NRA delegates were arriving for the
conference, a man sparked a panic at a busy Houston airport terminal
when he pulled out a gun and shot at the ceiling, then either shot
himself or was killed by a security officer who confronted him.

Of course the gun-rights fanatics will disavow any association with this character. That's what they do when one of their own acts badly. I ask you, does he belong to the gun-control side or the pro-gun side?

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind project has released the eye-popping results of a new poll aiming to gauge public attitudes and awareness level regarding gun issues. The pollsters found that overall, 29% of Americans agreed with the
statement, “In the next few years, an armed revolution might be
necessary in order to protect our liberties.” Five percent were unsure
about this.Some Democrats (18%) said an armed revolt “might be necessary,” while
27% of independents and whopping 44%of Republicans agreed. The less
educated someone was the more likely they were to agree with the
statement.PublicMind also found that 25% of voters believe they’re being lied
to about the Sandy Hook massacre by people trying to manipulate the
tragedy for political power. Another 11 % said they weren’t sure about
it.Read more about the survey here.

The irony, which I'm sure is lost on the true believers, is that the pro-gun argument is usually that spree shooters who kill innocents can change magazines so fast that it won't help to limit their capacity. Now, all of a sudden, the poor homeowner is completely defeated by the limitation.

The real question is this: how often does the magazine capacity limitation interfere with a homeowner's ability to fight off attackers, and is that more often than the times high cap magazines enable people like Lanza and Loughner to kill more?

Gov. Jerry Brown
on Wednesday signed legislation aimed at taking handguns and assault
rifles away from 20,000 Californians who acquired them legally but have
since been disqualified from ownership because of a criminal conviction
or serious mental illness.

The measure, the first of several gun-related bills to
reach the governor, allocates $24 million in surplus funds to hire
dozens of additional special agents to tackle a backlog of 40,000
weapons in the hands of people not allowed to possess firearms.

“This bipartisan bill makes our communities safer by giving law
enforcement the resources they need to get guns out of the hands of
potentially dangerous individuals,” said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for
the governor.

The state operates a database
that cross-references a list of gun owners with those disqualified
later from owning guns. But, budget cuts have prevented the state
Department of Justice from keeping up with the growing number of people
on the list.

I really can't wait to hear the pro-gun objections to this one. I know we can count on some of our regular commenters, they never disappoint.

A 4-year-old boy suffered non-life-threatening injuries early
Saturday in an accidental shooting in a Henrico County home, police
said.

At 7:03 a.m., police received a call from a woman saying one of
her children had accidentally discharged a weapon in the family home,
said Henrico police Lt. Shawn Maxwell.At the time of the shooting, the victim and another child were in the home with their mother. Their father was at work.

Maxwell said investigators worked at the home and talked to family members at the hospital.

He said no foul play is suspected, but an investigation is continuing.

That "no foul play is suspected" is code for no charges will be filed. This is how the cop-gun-nuts protect the civilian-gun-nuts.

By rights, the people who live in that home should be stripped of their god-given, natural-human right to own weapons. That would make the world a safer place.

An accidental shooting involving an Osage police officer on Saturday, April 27, is under investigation by authorities.

According
to Osage Mayor Steve Cooper, the officer, Brad Evans, was off-duty at
the time. He is apparently responsible for shooting another man in the
hand.

Police Chief Brian Wright confirmed that Hakkon Rosendahl
was the man who suffered the injury and taken to the Mitchell County
Regional Health Center in a personal vehicle and later released.Evans is now on a three-day, unpaid suspension and will be required to receive additional firearm training, Wright said.

No charges are expected to be filed, Wright said.

“It was an unfortunate accident. He
was apparently showing his weapon to a friend and it went off,” said
Cooper.

There will be no charges filed against a Davidson County man after an
accidental shooting in Linwood, Sheriff David Grice told WFMY News 2.Grice says the man responsible for the April 26 shooting was cleaning
his gun on his front porch and tested it by firing a round, hitting
10-year-old Zachary Reno, who was walking with his family. The group
was walking about 1,200 feet away from the man's porch, according to the
sheriff.Once sheriff's deputies identified the man as a suspect, the man
voluntarily came to the sheriff's office to give a statement. After
speaking with the man, detectives ruled this an accidental shooting."For us to charge someone in this kind of case, there has to be intent," Grice said.Deputies also presented the facts to the Davidson County district attorney, who decided no criminal charges would be filed.

That's pretty funny, the part about "intent." The guy purposely fired a round, violating 3 of the 4 Rules of Gun Safety, and the local detectives decided that was OK.

Associated Press/Dana Verkouteren, File - FILE - This Nov. 21, 2011 file
artist rendering shows accused White House shooter Oscar Ramiro
Ortega-Hernandez, center, before Magistrate Judge Alan Kay, left, in
Washington. From left are, U.S. Assistant Attorney George P. Varghese, a
public defender David Bos, Ortega-Hernandez, and Judge Kay. A new court
document says that an Idaho man charged with attempting to assassinate
President Barack Obama by shooting at the White House practiced with his
weapon for six months and may have been upset about the country's
marijuana policy. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez is currently awaiting
trial for the 2011 shooting, which didn't injure anyone but left more
than five bullet marks on the executive mansion. A court document
prosecutors filed Tuesday adds additional detail about the shooting,
which took place while the president and first lady were away from home.
(AP Photo/Dana Verkouteren, File) Yahoo News

An Idaho man charged with attempting to assassinate President Barack Obama by shooting at the White House practiced with his weapon for six months and may have been upset about the country's marijuana policy, prosecutors said in a newly filed court document.

Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez
is currently awaiting trial for the 2011 shooting, which didn't injure
anyone but left more than five bullet marks on the executive mansion.
Prosecutors filed a 14-page court document Tuesday that adds additional
detail about Ortega-Hernandez, who allegedly shot at the White House the night of Nov. 11 while the president and first lady were away.

Ortega-Hernandez, 22, has pleaded not guilty to the attempted assassination charge and to other charges.

In the document, prosecutors said Ortega-Hernandez "expressed anger
towards the government regarding the continued criminalization of
marijuana," which they said he acknowledged smoking and claimed makes
people more intelligent.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

The woman at the counter of Keith's Sporting Goods wanted a handgun. She
wasn't interested in price, quality or how to use it safely. She spoke
slowly that day in June as she made one request: Would the clerk load
it?

Maria Ward doesn't judge her customers. Americans have a right to buy
firearms, after all. But this woman seemed traumatized. Ward worried
she planned to hurt someone.

"I'm sorry," Ward told her. "I'm not going to sell you a firearm."

Ward, who owns the Gresham gun store with her husband, then did
something she'd never done before. She warned the Oregon State Police
not to allow anyone else to sell Brenda Nyhof Dunn a gun. But the
agency, which performs background checks for most gun sales in Oregon,
told Ward there was nothing it could do under the law.

The next day, Nyhof Dunn drove to Dick's Sporting Goods in Gresham.
She bought a rifle and ammunition, according to the police report, which
included a receipt from the transaction. She paid $10 to have the
Oregon State Police perform a background check, which she easily passed.
Hours later, she fatally shot herself. She was 36.

Sure , she could have used another method to kill herself--she tried hanging, but using a gun is a far more effective way to kill (after all, these are tools for killing or causing serious bodily injury). Few people who try suicide by gun survive -- 15 percent, according to a national study of 2001 data, compared with 98 to 99 percent of Americans who chose pills or cut themselves.

"Firearms are intrinsically lethal," said Catherine Barber, director of
the Harvard School of Public Health's Means Matter, a public education
program on firearms and suicide. "They are fast. They don't allow a
change of mind or the possibility of rescue."

The Oregon State Police approves, delays or denies gun purchases after a
check of statewide and federal databases to see, among other things, if
a buyer has outstanding warrants, felony convictions or involuntary
commitments for mental illness.

Ward, the gunshop owner, said in an interview that she went as far as
warning the state not to perform a background check on Nyhof Dunn if
she turned up at another dealer.

"You should not sell her anything," Ward recalled telling a state police employee.

Mathew Oeder, who oversees the state police Firearms Instant Check System
could not provide The Oregonian with specifics about Nyhof Dunn's case.
However, Oeder said the agency cannot delay or deny a person's firearm
purchase based on the observation of a firearms dealer.

However, suicide victims are far more likely to use a gun already in
the home. On the other hand, a small percentage buy one in the days or hours before their
death. A study of suicides by firearm from 2007 through 2009 in New
Hampshire found 8 percent of victims purchased a gun within a week of
their death, most within hours of the act.

Armed with the data, public health experts took their message to New
Hampshire gun store owners, asking them to make suicide hotline
information available in their stores and teaching them to spot the
signs of someone who might be suicidal.

Of course, it's all up to the gun store owner if they want to make a buck, or save a life.

A shooting accident sent a local firearms instructor to the hospital with injuries to his left hand.

Fred
Petersen, 66, of rural Stockton was showing his wife a .38 Special
handgun Thursday morning in their home, Winona County Sheriff Dave Brand
said.

Brand said Petersen had cleaned the pistol and was putting
it into a holster when Petersen’s wife asked him whether it was possible
to pull the trigger when the weapon was holstered.

In attempting
to answer that question, Petersen triggered the action while holding the
gun and holster in his left hand, accidentally firing a shot. The slug
struck his left index finger between the first and second joint,
damaging the bone, Brand said.

“The gun was pointed in a safe direction,” Petersen said Monday, “but my finger was not in a good spot.”

Petersen is an NRA-certified instructor for classes required to qualify for a Minnesota concealed-carry handgun permit.

We've discussed this before, but it seems like they're back in a big way. The 3rd-world sweat-shop owner has an obvious profit motive. The gun-rights nuts, taking their cue from Leader La Pierre, have another. Whatever deflects from the true focus of the issue is good. Sometimes it an exclusive focus on school security guards or improving the mental health reporting. As Ladd Everett said, we should be doing everything possible to stop these mass shootings before they happen, but thanks to the gun lobby, absolutely no changes have happened to accomplish that since Newtown.

A shoulder-fired rocket launcher stands on end amidst a display 2,600
guns, including 700 that were illegal, that were turned in during a gun
buyback program in Trenton, NJ, Jan. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Yesterday crazy republican Governor Jan Brewer, long a dear friend of
the fanatic NRA, signed into law a bill forcing cities to sell any
guns they buy back, in lieu of destroying them as has been policy, says Reuters.
Curiously, the law doesn’t include any sort of penalty, in other words
no one knows what would happen to cities that don’t comply with this
ridiculous law.

Supporters of the NRA-backed measure say local governments were
wasting money by not grabbing the revenue to be had by reselling the
guns. But opponents say it sort of defeats the purpose of the popular
program.

“This action by the governor is not only outrageous, but it is
insensitive for us now to be putting these guns back on the streets,”
one Democratic state senator fumed. “That’s just plain wrong.”Yes, senator, it is wrong, but as long as the Republicans and the NRA
own your state there’s little you’ll be able to do. It’s clearly what
the people want.

When we talked abou this before, I said I wasn't necessarily opposed to it. Yet, I understand the point made by Peter Lake on Mad Mike's. Returning guns to the FFL gun dealers is kind of useless given the lack of proper gun control laws in Arizona. What do you think?

Authorities in southern Kentucky say a
2-year-old girl has been accidentally shot and killed by her 5-year-old
brother, who was playing with a .22-caliber rifle he received as a gift.Kentucky State Police said the toddler was shot just after 1 p.m. CDT
Tuesday in Cumberland County and was taken to a nearby hospital, where
she was later pronounced dead.Cumberland County Coroner Gary White told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the children's mother was at home at the time.White told the newspaper that the boy received the rifle made for youths last year and is used to shooting it. He said the gun was kept in a corner and the family didn't realize a shell was left inside it.White said the shooting will be ruled accidental.

Of course it was just an accident. The boy was old enough to own his own gun at 4, but obviously he's not old enough to commit pre-meditated murder. And why would the parents have any culpability, it was the kid's gun?

Just like the Colion Noir videos, this is more of the NRA's desperate attempt to combat the stereotype that says gun owners are mainly fat white men. As I mentioned the other day when we were discussing it, gun-rights is a man's world. The minor increases in the numbers of women has not changed that.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday narrowly rejected a request from the National Rifle Association
to rehear a case challenging the constitutionality of federal laws
banning licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to people
younger than 21.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans rejected the request to hear the case before the full court
on an 8-7 vote, one day after a three-judge panel upheld the laws as
constitutional. All three judges on the panel that ruled Monday voted
against rehearing the case.

The lawsuit, filed by several people from the ages of 18 to 20 at the time and the NRA
against U.S.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2010, argues that the
federal laws constitute “a significant, unequal, and impermissible
burden on the right to keep and bear arms of a class of millions of
law-abiding 18-to-20 year-old adult citizens.”Later filings argue that the NRA’s
licensed gun dealer members are harmed by the ban as well, since it
prohibits them from making lawful handgun and ammunition sales to 18- to
20-year-olds.Judge Prado,
though, wrote that people who are at least 18 years old can own “long
guns,” or rifles, can possess and use handguns, and can receive them as
gifts from parents or guardians. He also cited federal statistics
showing comparatively high crime rates among 18- to 20-year-olds,
writing that since the ban was passed in 1968, “its objective has
retained its reasonableness. The threat posed by 18-to-20-year-olds with
easy access to handguns endures.”

"Endures" indeed. I don't see what good prohibiting teenagers from buying guns does if we allow them to own and use them.

What's your opinion? I think the minimum age for owning, using and buying any gun should be 25. Too often, younger people are not yet mature enough to handle the responsibility.

Other students
began yelling as a 17-year-old boy sitting in the front of a classroom
pulled out a handgun and shot himself in the head, according to a police report.

The student remained in critical condition in a hospital Tuesday as classes resumed at La Salle High School.

Green Township police
said there were at least 21 other students in the first-period
classroom Monday morning at the all-male Catholic school west of
Cincinnati. Teacher Michael Holman
told police he was at his desk when he heard yelling, then saw the
youth struggle briefly with the handgun, put it to his right temple and
fire.

He "discharged one round into his head," the police report stated.

His family has requested privacy while they focus on efforts to save his
life by the University of Cincinnati Medical Center doctors and staff.

Yeah, privacy so they don't have to explain where the gun came from. You know how I hate to flesh out the story too much, but I couldn't help but notice that a white kid in a private school most likely did not get the gun from gang members or drug dealers. He probably just took one of dad's.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

I'm a real-life gun guy. I own a gun shop and I have sold more than
15,000 guns, including at least 1,000 assault rifles. That's right. I'm
not afraid to call what it is -- an assault rifle. I'm also a member of
the NRA. In fact, I'm a NRA-certified firearms trainer and I have
trained more than 1,000 men and women in different types of
NRA-sanctioned courses.

I don't care what anyone says, there are effective laws that can protect
our gun rights while, at the same time, penalize gun owners who commit
irresponsible acts.
By self-regulating their own behavior, gun owners can also take the lead
going after bad guys who use guns. We do need strong laws and good
policing to catch and punish everyone who uses a gun to commit a crime,
as well as those who supply the guns. I want gun owners to lead that
effort too, and I want to lead it by reaching out to everyone, not just
to people who own guns. The time is now to get together, recognize we
have a common, not just individual responsibility to end gun violence
and get it done.

Deaths by gunfire in the city are down dramatically, far lower than
the national rate, according to a new study — and Mayor Bloomberg
credited his policing strategies for the downturn.

The number of
firearm deaths — which are made up primarily of homicides, but also
include suicides and accidental shootings — dropped from 524 in 2000 to
366 in 2011, a city Health Department study has found.

That represents a 31 percent decline during a time when the NYPD drastically increased its use of stop-and-frisk.

Bloomberg aides said they expect the death rate from guns would continue
to drop, pointing out that murders by shooting accounted for 57 percent
of total homicides in 2012 in the city, which had 419 murders last
year.

By comparison, 87 percent of Chicago’s murders last year were caused by firearms, a Bloomberg aide noted.

Murders caused by firearms dropped from 434 in 2000 to 240 in 2012 — a 45 percent drop — according to the mayor’s office.

In
his weekly radio address yesterday, Bloomberg credited the city’s tough
gun-possession laws and “smart, proactive policing that makes it much
more likely that if you break our city’s gun laws, you’ll be caught.”

In cities like New York where the majority of murders are done with guns, lowering the firearms murder rate necessarily impacts the overall figures.

Parkside Chief John Egan said police were called to the couple's home
shortly before 4 a.m. Saturday and found 43-year-old William Wanko at
the bottom of a set of a basement stairs with a single gunshot wound to
his upper chest, just below his Adam's apple.He was transported to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:21 a.m. Egan said.Wanko's wife, Michele, 42, told police that she and her husband began
drinking lemonade and vodka around 9 p.m. Friday and about six hours in
to the drinking session Michele Wanko, a stay-at-home mom, told her
husband she wanted to learn how to use a weapon in case someone tried to
break in to their home while he was away, Egan said.William Wanko took out several weapons he had in a locked safe in the
couple's basement and was showing his wife how to properly use them,
according to police. As he was getting another gun out of the safe,
Michele Wanko allegedly picked up a semi-automatic pistol, pulled the slide back as her husband had showed her and the gun went off, striking William Wanko.Michele Wanko was charged with involuntary manslaughter and related
offenses Saturday night but has since been released on bail, Egan said.

You see, that's not so difficult. The guilty party can be arrested and charged immediately prior to a lengthy investigation and with noviolation of due process. I never understood why in many other cases thay can't do the same.

Five senators - four Republicans
and one Democrat - could face voter backlash for opposing President
Barack Obama's bid to expand background checks for gun buyers, opinion polls released on Monday showed.

According to the surveys conducted by Public Policy Polling,
a private firm based in Raleigh, N.C., respondents said they are more
apt to oppose than support these lawmakers for re-election for joining
other senators in rejecting a bipartisan background check measure on April 17.

Political analysts say it's unclear if this sentiment
will persist or subside by Election Day. The next time any of the five
senators face voters will be November 2014.

Public Policy
Polling surveyed constituents of five senators who opposed the measure:
Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, and Dean Heller of Nevada, and Democrat Mark Begich of Alaska.

The surveys found 60 to 72 percent public support in
each state for expanding background checks to require them in sales at
gun shows and on the Internet. The measure was opposed by the National
Rifle Association, a powerful gun-rights group.

Monday, April 29, 2013

But gun rights advocates are holding their breath willing it NOT to
happen. They’re upping and maintaining their situational awareness to
PREVENT another atrocity. They’re tooled-up to STOP a spree killing (as
best they can). CNN commentator Morgan and his gun grabbing
sympathizers, on the other hand, are gleefully (sanctimoniously in this
case) anticipating a horrific, bloody “gotcha” moment. Watch the end of
this video. Could it be any clearer who owns the moral high ground?

It's not clear to me at all. In fact, not only did I fail to hear Piers Morgan "gleefully anticipating a horrific, bloody "gotcha" moment," I felt the smug and sarcastic pro-gun Senator ceded the moral high ground to Piers.

I’m a regular reader of TTAG and wondered if you’d share your
thoughts on the issue of pocket carry. This is the recent story that got
me thinking about it [via taylors.patch.com]:
“Greenville deputies said a 2-year-old child is in the hospital after
an accidental shooting in Greenville County. Deputies said the toddler
and his father were visiting the child’s grandparents on Fenwick Lane in
Berea, when the toddler reached into his father’s pocket and grabbed
the weapon. The gun fired striking the toddler in the chest.” Would you
say that carrying a gun in this manner without a pocket holster is
irresponsible? Are there certain makes or models of handguns which are
exceptions, which are safe to carry in the pocket?

I asked Robert to post that following our bizarre comment thread last week in which some of the commenters insisted pocket carry was acceptable (no qualifications mentioned).

For example, Greg at his most arrogant said this:

I carry several guns in precisely
the way described in my comment. They have no safeties because the
trigger pull is sufficiently heavy to preclude accidents. But tell me,
do you really want to argue with me about what experts on the subject
have to say? Between the two of us, which one do you imagine is more
informed on that?

Yes, Greg, I really did want to argue with you about this. It seems the Armmed Intelligentsia agrees with me, almost to a man. Pocket carry is irresponsible UNLESS you have a pocket holster. I noticed you didn't try to argue with them.

The
names of hundreds of thousands of current and former New Jersey
residents who have been involuntarily committed to psychiatric
facilities have been added to an FBI database used to bar firearms
purchases by people with criminal records or a history of mental
illness.

New Jersey court officials said that they began
forwarding digital records to the FBI earlier this year and that they
expect to complete the program by the end of May.

The Civil
Commitment Automated Tracking system has turned over identities of
280,000 people subject to involuntary civil commitment dating to 1975 in
16 of the state's 21 counties. The five remaining counties - Atlantic,
Essex, Hudson, Monmouth and Bergen - likely will be added by the end of
May.

Officials
of the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts say they expect
the total number of people whose names have been sent to the FBI will
reach about 420,000.

"The program has already demonstrated its
usefulness in promoting public safety," said Glenn A. Grant, a New
Jersey appellate judge who is serving as acting director of the New
Jersey court system. "More than 85 gun purchases were denied based on
the records the court provided to the New Jersey State Police for
referral to the federal registry.

Only the most extreme extremists could possibly have a problem with this. Let's hear it boys.

According to the incident report, the woman said that the man had
become angry because she would not go and cash a child support payment
she had received in the mail. The man left the home, but returned
several hours later and was intoxicated, the report said.

Upon his return, he began packing a bag to leave the home. While
packing, he picked up the woman's handgun and placed it in the bag, she
told police. She removed the gun from the bag and was going outside to
secure the gun in her car when he grabbed her by the back of her shirt
and tried to pull the gun from her hand. As the two struggled, a witness
said that the gun went off.Police have determined that the shooting was accidental.

A warrant was issued for the man for criminal domestic violence — first offense.

I suppose these folks are lawful gun owners? And the gun-rights fanatics will insist that's right and good.

An unemployed bricklayer shot two Italian policemen in a crowded square
outside the premier's office Sunday just as Italy's new government was
being sworn in, investigators said.

The gunman's intended target was politicians but none were in the square
so he shot at the Carabinieiri paramilitary police, Rome Prosecutor
Pierfilippo Laviani told reporters, citing what he said were the
suspect's own words.

Sunday was supposed to be a hopeful day when the debt-ridden nation
finally got new government to solve its many problems. But shots rang
out in Colonna Square near a busy shopping and strolling area shortly
after 11:30 a.m. just as Premier Enrico Letta and his new ministers were
taking their oaths at the Quirinal presidential office about a
kilometer (half mile) away.

The suspected gunman, dressed in a dark business suit, was immediately
wrestled to the ground by police outside Chigi Palace, which houses the
premier's office and other government offices. The politicians went to
the palace later Sunday for their first Cabinet meeting.

Laviani identified the alleged assailant as Luigi Preiti, a 49-year-old
from Calabria, a southern agricultural area plagued by organized crime
and chronic unemployment.
Laviani said Preiti, who was taken to the hospital for bruises, confessed to the shooting and didn't appear mentally unbalanced.

"He is a man full of problems, who lost his job, who lost everything,"
the prosecutor said. "He was desperate. In general, he wanted to shoot
at politicians, but given that he couldn't reach any, he shot at the
Carabinieri" paramilitary police.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said the alleged gunman wanted to kill
himself after the shooting but ran out of bullets. He said six shots
were fired in all. The gunman used a semi-automatic pistol whose serial
number had been scraped off.

There are fascinating differences between what happens in Italy and in the US. For one thing, the rarity of incidents like this. For another the police response. I suppose it's hard for Americans to understand how no police bullets were fired.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Chicago is well on its way to reaching historic lows in the area of homicide reductions for the first three months of 2013.For
example, February and March of 2013 experienced a significant decrease
in homicides compared to the same time period in 2012. Mayor
Rahm Emanuel is very serious about protecting young people in the City
of Chicago by organizing on a higher level with the corporate community,
President Obama, and the community at large. Since the shooting death
of Hadiya Pendleton and all of the national and international attention homicides have steadily declined.This is good news for all of the residents in Chicago, considering Chicago's history of being a very violent city.Recently,
First Lady Michelle Obama visited Chicago to help motivate the Chicago
corporate community along with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

It is strange how the media covers all of the shootings and homicide
stories but fail to provide the same coverage when homicides are down.
If Chicago stays on the current pace there is a chance that Chicago will
experience less than three hundred homicides this year.

If this keeps up the gun-rights fanatics will be deprived of one of their favorite false arguments.

What do you think? That's a good point about the media, isn't it? I guess that already removes one of the pro-gun false arguments right there, that the media is so biased against them.

The NRA has won the battle but lost the war. The best thing that happened to gun control is its defeat in Congress. Today's losers (Obama, Democrats, the 90 percent of Americans who support sane legislation) will be tomorrow's winners. Today's winners (NRA and its corporate backers and Republican puppets) will be tomorrow's losers. Losers: The NRA. Heady with victory, no doubt Wayne LaPierre
and his colleagues were belly-laughing, high-fiving, and guzzling down
bottles of Dom Perignon to celebrate. After all, they showed the
President of the United States who's boss — or so they think. Surely,
for a "job well done," LaPierre will ask for — and receive — a raise on
his $1 million salary.If the NRA had the smarts to think strategically, it would have
thrown its critics a bone and supported background checks; after all, on
that issue the proposed bill was just an expansion of existing law.
That way, it would have appeared rational and disarmed many of its
fiercest critics — at least temporarily.

Instead, drunk with
power, the NRA stupidly opposed any and all restrictions on gun sales —
and violated the first lesson of "war": Don't humiliate your defeated
enemy. Thinking/knowing that it "owns" Congress, it wouldn't give an
inch. By its hubris and intransigence, it has inflamed its opposition.So, the next time there is a murderous rampage the NRA will be
blamed. And the backlash against it will be unrelenting, fierce — and
successful. Congress will cave in to overwhelming public pressure, and
we'll finally get sweeping gun-control legislation, beyond anything that
might have passed recently.

An Elgin woman along with her 14-year-old son were arrested on gun
charges Friday after the mother fired a gun into the air in the Poplar
Creek subdivision, police said today.

The boy was arrested after
he allegedly brought out two rifles to his mother as she stood outside
their home on the 1000 block of Peachtree Lane, according to a press
release by the Elgin Police Department.

After police arrived,
they were told that a woman had walked out of her home and confronted
someone and then had fired a handgun into the air before returning to
her home, police said.

Police
said her 14-year-old son was charged after they became aware that the
boy had brought two rifles out to his mother. After a searching the
home, police confiscated three handguns and two rifles, officials said.

Mosley
was charged with felony charges of aggavated unlawful use of a weapon,
reckless discharge of a firearm and a misdemeanor charge of not having a
valid firearm owner's identification card. Mosley's son was charged as a
juvenile with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and not having a
valid firearm owner's identification card.

Isn't failure to have a valid firearm owner's ID card the kind of thing Mike Vanderboegh and his buddy Kurt Hofmann recommend people do? I suppose the gun rights extremists will be coming to the defense of this woman now.

The problem I see is that people who live by the bad-laws-be-damned philosophy have a hard time distinguishing between the "bad laws" and those which should be respected.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at a news conference at
City Hall on April 25. The billionaire mayor has been spending from his
personal fortune to provide a "political counterweight to the NRA," his
policy adviser says. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Bloomberg's first target is a Democratic senator facing a tough fight for re-election in 2014: Mark Pryor of Arkansas.Pryor
knows he's a marked man. Whether he's actually sweating it is the
question. He's said it before, and he's saying it now: He doesn't take
gun advice from the mayor of New York City. He listens to Arkansas."I
guess the way I look at it [is] it's just another one of the outside
groups that's going to try to come in," he says. "I think, you know,
honestly, that's what's wrong with politics today is all these outside
groups come in and try to do that. But I can't stop it from happening."Pryor was one of four Democrats who voted against a proposal to
expand background checks last week, and Bloomberg, the founder of Mayors
Against Illegal Guns, is trying to make sure Pryor pays. Bloomberg
plans to pour money into months of TV ads, radio ads and mailings to
defeat the Arkansas senator. His group says it has spent $12 million in
the months since the Newtown, Conn., school shootings on field campaigns
and commercials across the country."This is just a toe in the
water," says John Feinblatt, Bloomberg's chief policy adviser. And toe
in the water is right — this is a guy Forbes estimates to be
worth about $27 billion. Bloomberg will also be doling out money to help
re-election campaigns of lawmakers who voted for gun control — both
Democrats and Republicans."The mayor and others are going to
provide the political counterweight to the NRA," Feinblatt says. "It has
had the field to itself for decades, and that has to stop. And that
time has come."

Getting a background check to buy a gun would be as easy as printing out an airplane boarding pass -- if Sen. Tom Coburn has his way.

Coburn's
do-it-yourself background check plan -- which would expand the number
of gun sales covered by background checks but also attempt to make them
more user-friendly -- is one possible path forward for the gun safety
legislation now stalled in the Senate.Gun
control advocates are more skeptical of Coburn's plan, and Coburn
himself admitted he doesn't know whether it has the votes to pass. But
it appears his plan will get a vote: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,
D-Nev., promised as much last week as he pulled the gun bill from the
floor, saying he would bring it up again later. Coburn has one
co-sponsor, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., but the NRA has been silent on
the proposal.

Here's how Coburn's plan would work: A gun
buyer would log in to a free federal web portal and enter some personal
information. If the buyer passes the background check, he or she would
get a multi-digit key code, good for 30 days, to print out and take to a
seller. That seller would use the same portal to confirm the
authenticity of the background check.

The
self-service system, the Oklahoma Republican said, would bypass the cost
and record-keeping requirements required by the current proposal, which
requires the involvement of a federally licensed firearm dealer for
sales at gun shows and over the Internet.

"It's unworkable," said Ladd Everitt of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, "and there would be no incentive for any private seller to do a background check under the legislation."

Another problem for gun control advocates: There would be no lasting record of the sale.

What's your opinion? I could see something like this working. What if the system produced a record of the transaction which could later be accessed? What if gun owners were required to maintain a print-out of the background check approval as later proof?

As with all background check systems, this one would work best with licensing and registration.